When they say world loops, they mean world: Some of these sound like Smithsonian field recordings, but higher quality—this isn’t “new age” world.

Some regions are sparsely represented: Asia has four instruments, Native Americans and Arabians get five, Gypsies and Celts have seven; however Africa has ten folders and East India, six. Fortunately each folder has a reasonable amount of loops, so it’s easy to create variations.

Yes, you can make ethnic-sounding music, which might seem limited unless you’re scoring an action flick where the hero jet-sets to exotic locales. But then I did the “let’s throw loops together and see what sticks” test, using African vocals and bass, Arabic rhythms, Celtic dulcimer, and East Indian harmoniums and vocals. It sounded surprisingly cool, and as I assumed you wouldn’t believe me, check out the audio example at www.eqmag.com.

Of all the “world” sound libraries I’ve reviewed, this is a tough call. On one hand, there are enough spices to take any dance mix to the next level in a Peter Gabriel-esque way, and it’s a gold mine for soundtracks; but a lot of the material is very exotic, likely limiting its usefulness in traditional genres. Still, this is a bold and novel library, and because some of the loops are outstanding in terms of being chills-up-spine evocative, it keeps pulling me back in for more.

Loop Workshop follows the “download for cheap” model—typical Pro Session Drumz series packages are around 100–200MB, averaging 50–150 song segments duplicated as stereo kit and room mics only (layer them in parallel to choose the amount of room sound), and cost $12–$14. No, that’s not a typo, and these were recorded in Nashville by Tony Morra, so the playing is great. There are many other packages too, like a dozen drum machine loops for $1.99.

The online audio demos are very helpful, because the number of samples is pretty overwhelming—I checked out Big Drumz, Pop Drumz, Rock Drumz, Alt Drumz, and Reggae Drumz. The sound for these is raw (but not grungy), muscular, and well-recorded—not surprising, as founder Rick DiFonzo was half of Discrete Drums, whose libraries are still my go-to loops for rock drums. In addition to stereo files, the site will also be offering multitrack Pro Tools sessions; this appeals to me a lot, as I tend to mix cymbals somewhat lower than most people, and the crash cymbals on the stereo files are a bit hot for my taste.

Overall, Loop Workshop seems aimed at the instant gratification crowd—“I need a big rock backbeat now, what am I gonna do?” Why, you’re going to go to the Loop Workshop site, listen to the demos, see what works for you . . . then download, and pay for, only what you need.

This loop library-meets-instrument is all about intense, hardcore urban music with a mostly minor vibe. I could probably score an entire inner city crime drama show with just these loops (and it would be a great soundtrack, too).

The drum beats are bone-crushing and huge, but not huge as in ambience—huge as in taking over most of the audible spectrum, holding it by the neck, and threatening its family. The synth riffs buzz away, some FX sound like samples of the apocalypse, and there are even a few massive, orchestral-type stings and strings.

The 20 construction kits include deconstructed and mixed riffs, each playable via MIDI (controller or sequencer notes). The Elastik player features stretch algorithms from zPlane; Ueberschall’s “loop eye” interface brings realtime control sensibility to a loop-based virtual instrument (see the 3/10 issue), This makes it easy to create extended improvisations within the context of a construction kit.

But it’s not all doom and gloom: Take out the melodic instruments, and you’re left with beefy drum parts that work with other genres. And don’t get me wrong—the drama and danger in these loops isn’t a bad thing, as they’re extremely well done; the intensity and depth lifts them above the ordinary. If you seek big, bad, authoritative loops with an undertone of power and menace, these deliver

STEVEN SLATE STEVEN SLATE DRUMS PLATINUM V3.5 I met Steven Slate at Sweetwater’s Gear Fest, where after finding out what kind of drum sounds I liked, he said I had to check out his drum library. Sure, uh-huh, more drum samples . . . (stifles yawn). Well, he was right. Using Native Instruments’ Kontakt 3 player engine, Slate’s 53 kits combine “you-are-there” multisamples with room ambience and intelligent processing within Kontakt. Far from being neutral, these drums make a statement: From drums so dry/tight they could be from the Kalahari to Zep-type sounds saturated with ambience, you get full, muscular sounds that need no extra processing to be ready for prime time.

Marcel Barsotti continues to enlarge his Ethno World library of exotic instruments, adding 10GB of content to the EW4 library–there are 240 instruments and (new to V5) 25 solo voices; the voices alone add more than 3,800 samples and phrases.

In the 11/09 issue, we covered virtual amp stacking techniques for bass. Now, let’s stack things up from a guitarist’s standpoint. After all, one of the great advantages of amp sims is you can try out sounds that would be a hassle to set up in the “real” world—like stacking two (or more) different amps and cabinets, with different effects, and spreading them out in stereo.

Dub, the even more spaced-out mutant strain of reggae, isn’t just about world music but is also finding its way into chill and dance clubs. This DVD-ROM contains 846 loops (690MB), 412 hits (34MB), and 117 rolls (78MB); the WAV loops aren’t Acidized, so for doing the time-stretch thing, you’ll need to use the REX2 versions.

Prime Loops Da Sound of Bounce Part house, part electro, and part hip hop, this isn’t just about loops but also samples and programs for Reason NN XT, Steinberg HALion, Logic EXS, Cakewalk SFZ, and NI Kontakt formats.